1st Philippine Open Education forum
The mini-conference aims to inquire upon the feasibility and development of private initiatives to contribute in the Philippine educational or learning system, as alternative else collaborating actors in this matter.
— Philippine Commons
23 April 2008
830-900 :: Registration
900-915 :: Invocation
915-1000 :: Introduction to Open Education
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Jaime “Jimmy” Soriano
1000-1015 Q&A
1015-1030 :: Break
1030-1115 :: Creative empowerment and liberal education
Speaker/org: Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit
Mr. Sigfried Herzog
1115-1030 Q&A
1130-1215 :: The public direction of Philippine education (primary and secondary)
Speaker/org: Department of Education
Atty. Geronimo “Indy” Sy
1215-1230 Q&A
1230-130 :: Lunch Break
130-215 :: Private initiatives towards open education: International/Local
Speaker/org: Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Michael Vernon “Berne” Guerrero
215-230 Q&A
230-315 :: Private initiatives towards free and open books
Speaker/org: Bayanihan Books
Mr. Greg Moreno
315-330 Q&A
330-345 :: Break
345-430 :: commercial/business reaction to open content
Speaker/org: Vibal Foundation
Ms. Kristine Mandigma
430-445 Q&A
445-500 :: Closing remarks
What’s going on at Bayanihan Books?
In the past 10 days, Bayanihan Books’ mailing list doubled to 43 members. Two books are now available for editing and volunteers have already started writing the outline based on learning competencies outlined by the Department of Education.
I would like to thank all volunteers who believe in this project and the people spreading the word and recruiting more volunteers.
Bayanihan Books has also been mentioned in other websites as well:
- “Pinoy uses wiki model to make textbooks for public schools” is an article that appeared in Inquirer.net. It was written by fellow group member Erwin Oliva.
- The Philippine Commons, the local proponent of the Creative Commons license has included Bayanihan Books as one of the pioneer project in open content and education. The Creative Commons Philippines (CC-PH) is headed by Atty. Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA. Jane Park of the global Creative Commons website has also written a post about Bayanihan Books. Jun Asis, a proponent of elearning, also mentions Bayanihan Books in his post about Creative Commons.
- My former professor and friend Rommel Feria suggests merging Bayanihan Books with Curriki, a project by former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. Hmmn. Something to think about and discuss with the group one of these days.
- “Yearning to be Educated” is blog post by Anne (another member) who, just like me, is a product of public schools. We had the same experience with dilapidated textbooks but I think hers is worse because her surname starts with V. Through her blog, I found the blog of Sidney Snoeck that contains many touching photos of Filipino kids at school.






